Message from David's Teachers - RIP Classroom Fish

Here is an e-mail we got from David's teachers at St. James:

Hello families of P3,

Julia and I wanted to let you know that today one of the fish in our classroom died. We have a happy healthy aquarium that we monitor regularly so we believe the fish (an orange platy) died of natural causes. The fish died during the morning and only a few children noticed the fish wasn't moving. After lunch, however, the afternoon children really noticed and began asking questions. So we sat around the rug and talked about it.  

The first thing the children wanted to know was why the fish died. Our working theory is that he had lived a full life and grew old and tired. He got caught in the filter, which our healthy fish never do, so we think he was weak and that it was simply his time to go. After some Q&A, we removed the fish from the tank and each afternoon child got a good look at him with the magnifying glass. We discussed decomposition and the cycle of life and then decided to bury him the garden. We wrapped him in a tissue, placed him in a band-aid box and took him outside. Each child took a turn digging the hole with the hand trowel and then we carefully buried the fish. On the way inside we took a look at the compost pile and observed plant life in various stages of decomposition and new growth.

We wanted to let you know about this in case your child brings it up and has further questions. We were very proud of the children for their care and concern for the fish and their interest in learning about the cycle of life.

 

Thanks!  Have a great evening!

Ms. Tamara and Ms. Julia

No More Naps

We have officially dropped David's nap both at home and at school and so far it has really helped with his nighttime sleeping pattern. He has happily gone to bed at 9pm the last few nights, in his own bed, with no fighting and slept there the ENTIRE night (although he did come get in our bed around 5am this morning). Pretty much a miracle, right? Given that this is a major milestone that is typically documented in the baby book, I had to share.... even if it is a few years later than usual.

Here is the scene when I left for the gym this morning:

Really Great Weekend

Luke and Cole came down to visit this weekend and we had the best time. Before they got here on Friday, we had dinner with Travis, Carol, Lila, et al... which was so nice because it had been a while and we had lots of catching up to do. It is so fun to watch the kids grow up together. We then headed home and David stayed up anxiously awaiting Uncle Luke's arrival. On Saturday morning, we got up and had breakfast at the house and then headed downtown to visit the Nature and Science Museum and Klyde Warren Park. It was nice to get to know Luke's girlfriend Cole, whom we have met but not spent a lot of time with one-on-one. She is just lovely and they seem very happy. On Saturday night, Hayley was nice enough to watch the kiddos while the four of us went to a fabulous dinner at Nick and Sam's. They headed back on Sunday and Matt had to go into the office, so David, Henry and I went back down to Klyde Warren Park to soak up some of the amazing weather that makes Dallas awesome (Note to Self: Remember all these great weekends when we are stuck inside this summer). They have games in the park, so David learned (and got pretty good at) checkers. Later in the day on Sunday, we went up to the park near our house to play some baseball. Overall - hard to ask for a better weekend.

 

Luke and Cole got up early on Sunday and went out for breakfast. Look who scored a donut...

 

 

Granny D sent some gift sacks for the kiddos all the way from OKC.. so I got pictures of the full range of Henry's reaction.

 

 

 

 

 

I am really digging this whole downtown park. I mean - it is a park on top of one of the busiest highways in Dallas. How cool is that?

 

Henry - 6 months

Our little guy is 6 months old and went in for his check-up today. He is really catching up nicely - he weighed in at 15lbs 5ozs (25%), is 26.25" long (50%) and has a 17.5" head circumference (70%). Overall he is in great health and a happy baby.

Henry Updates

Henry, our happy baby, has really made strides in his growth. First, he is getting to be quite the chunk - which is such a blessing considering where he started. Second, he is MOBILE. Unlike David, who had no desire to move or crawl until he was almost a year old (when he took off and hasn't slowed down since), Henry wants to move. He can't yet crawl, but he gets up on all fours and thrust himself forward until he lands on his chest and then he does some maneuver that resembles the worm to move himself across the floor. It looks painful, but he can make it pretty far. We can no longer leave him on beds and he made it all the way across the living room into the fire place last night. He is also starting to sit upright and very intently watching us eat. We gave him a little taste of some baby food a few days ago (it was a spinach mix and he loved it), but we plan to start feeding him regular solids in about a week or so when he turns 6 months.

 

Couple videos of our little guy:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wait, what? Christmas is Over and it is 2014!

Time flies when you're having fun (or when you have two lawyers, a 4 year old and a newborn)... For Christmas, we had my family over the weekend before to celebrate and then made a quick trip to OKC to see Matt's family for Christmas day. In between all of that, David performed at the St. James Christmas pageant and had a Christmas party with his friends at school.

Look how adorable he is...although better this year than the past years, he focused more on the hand gestures than the singing. In the interest of fair disclosure, he gets his singing talents from me, so it is probably best that he sing quietly.

 

 

 

 

 

Here are all the kiddos on my side of the family. I said Cheeto-butt and apparently it is the funniest thing they had ever heard...

David playing with his new toys:

 Henry playing with his new toy - he loved it, of course!

 

 

On Tuesday, we headed up to OKC to celebrate Christmas with Matt's family. Matt's parents didn't have anywhere for the dogs to stay, so we stayed downtown at the Skirvin (which is the hotel that Matt and I stayed at when we got married). It think this is one of my favorite hotels (at least in the U.S.) 

 

 

 

The boys watching Frosty on Christmas eve:

David's letter to Santa. A few minutes after writing this note and decorating the cookies, David had a complete meltdown about how Santa was going to eat all of the cookies. Between being exhausted and trying to fight going to sleep, he didn't believe us when we told him that Santa would probably leave some for him. Luckily, we were correct. David was extremely happy at 6am when he discovered that Santa left him one of the cookies.

They both finally sleep:

So that Santa could bring all the goodies:

 

Did I mention that he got up at 6am? This is early for David (very early considering he did not go to sleep until 11:30 pm).

 

On Christmas morning, after seeing what Santa brought us and getting room service for breakfast (David's favorite part about staying in hotels), we took the opportunity to get some pictures in the hotel lobby (which was beautifuly decorated).

 

We then headed over to Granny D's where we had what will forever be remembered as the Christmas that Papa Bruce spent with the dogs. David got his very first set of real Legos, which have been a big hit. Henry enjoyed seeing everyone and scored some nice new teething rings and new clothes. Also, of note, it was the first Christmas with the ladies had a significant presence. Now that Luke has a girlfriend and Jake is married - I have two some female counterparts to hang with (and enjoy a glass of wine with)!!

 

On New Years, we stayed at the house and had Dave and Kristen over for adult game night (although David was certain they came to see him and insisted that Kristen play video games with him). We did sparklers and generally had a great time.